About
A creative lab for research and tools that help people shape the future
ISRD, Interdisciplinary Systems R&D, brings science, design, education and AI together around the connected challenges humanity faces, so that healthier, fairer and more resilient ways of living can be understood, tested and shared.
Our aim is a civilization where everybody has a voice in how Earth's resources are managed and where we go next. AI can help many producers, and the people who need it most, be heard, so the picture stays pluralistic: many perspectives, understood together.
What we do
Research
Programs in health systems, literary systems, global futurism and writing with AI, published as articles, reports and courses.
Explore →Simulations
Interactive models that make feedback loops, attractors and emergence tangible, growing toward systems games.
Explore →Writing tools
ISRD Writing Studio and ISRD Press: pre-publication tools that take a manuscript from first idea to a reader-tested draft.
Explore →Education
Learner-First Education: a framework for designing instruction that shifts mental models for good.
Explore →How we work
The same few commitments shape every project.
- Design as evidenceEvery project runs one cycle: map the system, form a testable hypothesis, build an intervention, and fold what happens back into the model. The working system is both the output and the evidence, and a visible failure is itself a finding.
- Connections firstThe parts of a system are nodes in a directed graph, linked by feedback. We model the connections before the components.
- Modular by designEvery simulation is pluggable. A new model is a new configuration for the shared toolkit.
- AI that supports expert judgmentComponents expose their state to AI services that interpret runs and suggest adjustments, while people make the consequential decisions.
Mission
Everyone gets a voice
AI can give everybody a voice: a say in how Earth's resources are managed and where our civilization goes next.
ISRD aims to help many producers, especially people who need AI support to be heard, and to keep the picture pluralistic: many perspectives, understood together.
The researcher
Kurt Rowley, PhD
Systems scientist · Health researcher · Instructional designer
Kurt develops a rigorous, non-linear methodology for understanding complex adaptive systems, from post-viral illness to civilizational dynamics to the craft of writing. The work draws on general systems theory, cybernetics, complexity science and design-based research, and builds on decades of research in instructional design and learning technology.
ISRD welcomes collaboration with researchers and organizations on specific projects where the fit is right.